Dataset Information

Using the Footfall Sound of Dairy Cows for Detecting Claw Lesions.

ABSTRACT: An important factor for animal welfare in cattle farming is the detection of lameness. The presented study is part of a project aiming to develop a system that is capable of an automated diagnosis of claw lesions by analyzing the footfall sound. Data were generated from cows walking along a measurement zone where piezoelectric sensors recorded their footfall sounds. Locomotion of the animals was scored and they were graded according to a three-scale scoring system (LS1 = non-lame; LS2 = uneven gait; LS3 = lame). Subsequently, the cows were examined by a hoof trimmer. The walking speed across the test track was significantly higher in cows with LS1 compared to those with LS2 and LS3 and thus, they were showing a smoother gait pattern. The standard deviation of volume (SDV) in the recorded footfall sound signal was considered as a factor for the force of a cow's footsteps. Cows with non-infectious claw lesions showed lower SDV than healthy cows and those with infectious claw diseases. This outcome confirmed the hypothesis that the evaluated cows affected by non-infectious claw lesions have a greater sensitivity to pain and demonstrate a less forceful gait pattern. These first results clearly show the potential of using footfall sound analysis for detecting claw lesions.

SUBMITTER: Volkmann N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6466211 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Using the Footfall Sound of Dairy Cows for Detecting Claw Lesions.

Volkmann Nina N Kulig Boris B Kemper Nicole N

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI 20190301 3

An important factor for animal welfare in cattle farming is the detection of lameness. The presented study is part of a project aiming to develop a system that is capable of an automated diagnosis of claw lesions by analyzing the footfall sound. Data were generated from cows walking along a measurement zone where piezoelectric sensors recorded their footfall sounds. Locomotion of the animals was scored and they were graded according to a three-scale scoring system (LS1 = non-lame; LS2 = uneven g ...[more]

PMID: 30832278

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Project description:BackgroundLaminitis and energy-related postpartum diseases share several risk factors, indicating a common etiology. Thus, a herd's incidence rate of energy-related postpartum diseases, such as displaced abomasum and clinical ketosis, might reflect the likelihood of cows to suffer from laminitis-related claw lesions. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between herd-level incidence rate of displaced abomasum and clinical ketosis, general risk factors, and claw lesions in individual cows recorded at maintenance claw trimming.MethodsThe dataset consisted of 6773 trimmings, performed between 2004 and 2006 by professional trimmers, from 3607 Swedish Red and Swedish Holstein cows in 26 herds. The herds were classified as having a high, inconsistent-high or low incidence rate of energy-related postpartum diseases, based on the number of recorded cases of veterinary-diagnosed displaced abomasum and clinical ketosis in the Swedish national animal disease recording system during 2002 to 2006, and observations and interviews in connections with herd visits. Generalized linear mixed models were used to investigate the association between herd-level incidence rate of energy-related postpartum diseases and laminitis-related lesions including sole ulcer and sole hemorrhage; and hygiene-related lesions including interdigital dermatitis, digital dermatitis, heel-horn erosion, verrucose dermatitis, and interdigital hyperplasia; and absence of any claw lesion. Systematic effects, including first-order interactions, with P < 0.05 were included in the models. Herd classification was forced into the models, and a random effect of herd was included.ResultsIn comparison to herds with a high incidence rate of energy-related postpartum diseases, low-incidence herds showed a lower odds ratio (OR; 0.2) for laminitis-related lesions in cows trimmed during the summer months. Low-incidence herds also showed numerically lower OR estimates for laminitis-related lesions in all parity classes and a numerically lower OR for hygiene-related lesions. In addition, low-incidence herds showed tendencies towards a numerically higher OR for absence of any lesion, irrespective of trimming season or parity.ConclusionsOnly a few statistically significant associations were found, but several tendencies pointed towards better claw health in herds with low as compared with high incidence rate of energy-related postpartum diseases.

Project description:Sole ulcers (SUs) and white line disease (WLD) are two common noninfectious claw lesions (NICL) that arise due to a compromised horn production and are frequent causes of lameness in dairy cattle, imposing welfare and profitability concerns. Low to moderate heritability estimates of SU and WLD susceptibility indicate that genetic selection could reduce their prevalence. To identify the susceptibility loci for SU, WLD, SU and/or WLD, and any type of noninfectious claw lesion, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed using generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) regression, chunk-based association testing (CBAT), and a random forest (RF) approach. Cows from five commercial dairies in California were classified as controls having no lameness records and ≥6 years old (n = 102) or cases having SU (n = 152), WLD (n = 117), SU and/or WLD (SU + WLD, n = 198), or any type of noninfectious claw lesion (n = 217). The top single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were defined as those passing the Bonferroni-corrected suggestive and significance thresholds in the GLMM analysis or those that a validated RF model considered important. Effects of the top SNPs were quantified using Bayesian estimation. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) blocks defined by the top SNPs were explored for candidate genes and previously identified, functionally relevant quantitative trait loci. The GLMM and CBAT approaches revealed the same regions of association on BTA8 for SU and BTA13 common to WLD, SU + WLD, and NICL. These SNPs had effects significantly different from zero, and the LD blocks they defined explained a significant amount of phenotypic variance for each dataset (6.1-8.1%, p < 0.05), indicating the small but notable contribution of these regions to susceptibility. These regions contained candidate genes involved in wound healing, skin lesions, bone growth and mineralization, adipose tissue, and keratinization. The LD block defined by the most significant SNP on BTA8 for SU included a SNP previously associated with SU. The RF models were overfitted, indicating that the SNP effects were very small, thereby preventing meaningful interpretation of SNPs and any downstream analyses. These findings suggested that variants associated with various physiological systems may contribute to susceptibility for NICL, demonstrating the complexity of genetic predisposition.

Project description:Sole ulcers (SU) and white line disease (WLD) are noninfectious claw lesions that arise due to compromised horn production and are common causes of lameness in dairy cattle, imposing welfare and profitability concerns. The low to moderate heritability estimates of SU and WLD susceptibility indicate that genetic selection could reduce their prevalence. To identify loci associated with SU and WLD susceptibility, generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) regression and random forest (RF) genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed. Cows from five commercial dairies in California were classified as sound controls having no instances of lameness and above six years of age (n = 102) or cases having SU (n = 152), WLD (n = 117), SU and/or WLD (SU+WLD, n = 198), or any type of noninfectious claw lesion (n = 217). Top SNPs were defined as those passing Bonferroni-corrected suggestive and significance thresholds in the GLMM analysis or those that a validated RF model considered important. Effects of top SNPs were quantified using Bayesian estimation. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) blocks defined by top SNPs were explored for candidate genes and previously identified, functionally relevant quantitative trait loci. The GLMM GWAS revealed regions of association on BTA8 for SU and BTA13 common to WLD, SU+WLD, and noninfectious claw lesions. Bayesian estimation of effect sizes indicated that these SNPs had effects significantly different from zero, indicating their small but notable contribution to susceptibility. Promising candidate genes identified in these regions were involved in wound healing, skin lesions, bone growth and mineralization, adipose tissue, and keratinization. The LD block defined by the most significant SNP on BTA8 for SU included a SNP previously reported to be associated with SU. The RF models were overfitted, indicating that SNP effects were very small and thereby preventing meaningful interpretation of SNPs with the highest importance values and downstream analyses. These findings suggested that variants associated with a variety of physiological systems may contribute to susceptibility for noninfectious claw lesions, demonstrating the complexity of genetic predisposition.

Dataset Information

Using the Footfall Sound of Dairy Cows for Detecting Claw Lesions.

Publications

Using the Footfall Sound of Dairy Cows for Detecting Claw Lesions.

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